As noted above, this invention is related to, and is an improvement of, the slide switch disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,549 (hereinafter more simply referred to as "the '549 Patent"). In this regard, the slide switch of the '549 Patent includes an electrically insulated slide body which is slidably disposed within an interior cavity defined in an electrically insulated support housing. The slide body has a knob which projects through an opening defined in an upper wall of the support housing so as to allow manual movement of the slide body between its first and second positions. At least one pair of elongated conductors is provided in the slide switch according to the '549 Patent such that the conductors' opposed ends are fixed to an opposed pair of side walls of the housing and are thus disposed parallel to one another, but positioned in spaced relationship transversely relative to the reciprocal movement of the slide body within the support housing.
The slide body of the slide switch according to the '549 Patent carries a movable conductor which is sized and configured so as to be in contact with the pair of elongated fixed conductors when the slide body is in its first position so as to make an electrical circuit therebetween. More specifically, the movable conductor of the slide switch according to the '549 Patent is disclosed as preferably being a spherical conducting member which is seated within an interior hollow portion of the knob of the slide body and urged into contact with the fixed conductors by means of a compression spring. Also, the possibility of the conductor being in the form of a U-shaped piece is noted at column 3, lines 9-12 of the '549 Patent.
There exists the possibility, however, that the combination of a spherical conducting member will present some problems during manufacture of the slide switch according to the '549 Patent. That is, since the spherical conducting member must be depressed against the bias force of the compression spring during manufacture, there is the possibility that the spherical conducting member and/or the spring will be forcibly expelled from the interior hollow of the slide switch knob prior to final assembly. Thus, positionally maintaining the spherical conducting member/compression spring prior to final assembly becomes a tedious task when accomplished manually and is problematic when assembly is accomplished automatically (e.g., via robotics).
It would therefore be desirable if a slide switch was provided having the beneficial attributes of the slide switch disclosed in the '549 Patent, but without at least some of the possible problems during manufacturing as noted above. It is towards providing such an improved slide switch that the present invention is directed.
The slide switches according to this invention include an electrically insulated support housing having opposing pairs of side walls which establish an interior space. An upper wall is joined to an upper edge of the opposing pairs of side walls to close an upper end of the interior space and defines an opening in communication with the interior cavity. An electrically insulated slide body which is slidably disposed within the interior space of the support housing so as to be movable reciprocally between at least first and second positions therewithin. The slide body also defines a cavity and has a knob which projects through the opening defined in the upper wall of the support housing to allow movement of the slide body between the first and second positions.
At least one pair of elongated conductors are fixed to the support housing such that the at least one pair of fixed elongate conductors extend parallel to one another but are positioned in spaced relationship transversely relative to the reciprocal movement of the slide body. The slide body includes an electrically conductive movable contact disposed in the cavity. This movable contact has a protruding contact surface which contacts both the fixed conductors when the slide body is in at least one of the first and second positions. In addition, the movable contact has an opposed pair of upturned sides which exert a bias force outwardly against the slide body cavity and to thereby frictionally retain the conductive strip within the cavity.
The movable contact itself may take several forms. Thus, for example, the movable contact may be in the form of an elongated strip having upturned sides which thereby exert the above-mentioned bias force against the slide body. The movable contact may also include upper spring flanges which are each connected integrally at one end to a respective one of the sides and which converge toward (and even possibly beyond) one another. That is, one of the upper spring flanges may define a terminal end groove, while the other spring flange includes an outwardly extending tongue disposed in such end groove.
Alternatively, the upper spring flanges may include generally C-shaped recesses which are interengaged with one another. Furthermore, the upper spring flanges may have a first inwardly turned segment connected integrally to a respective one of the sides and an outwardly turned segment connected integrally to said first segment (e.g., such that the upper spring flanges are generally U-shaped or V-shaped in profile).
Further aspects and advantages of this invention will become more clear after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments.